IntroductionThis is a Small Map based on the countries which border the Mediterranean Sea. There are no Impassables. No fancy gimmicks just a basic map with standard gameplay that can be enjoyed by anyone.

Current Version 10

The map now has 25 territoies, and i have put portugal in as a grey area, and i have added the Capitals bonus back in

From Spain Right through Europe and around to Egypt are real borders but as for North West Africa and Libya i was just playing around they aren't final i just wanted to see what it looked like I am still figuring out how i can make the water more, waterish :looks through dictionary is waterish a word?: but will figure it out sooner or later

samuelc812 wrote:From Spain Right through Europe and around to Egypt are real borders but as for North West Africa and Libya i was just playing around they aren't final i just wanted to see what it looked like I am still figuring out how i can make the water more, waterish :looks through dictionary is waterish a word?: but will figure it out sooner or later

Is this small or large? Eather way, I can see you getting into size troubles not too long away: Israel, Macedonia and some of the other baltic states in particular.

Your continents are all far too big to be easy to take and the bonuses for them are small for the difficulty that would be involved Egypt and Spain are the only ones i can see anyone being able to take and that would involve a lot of difficulty. Reducing territ count a little may solve the above problem as well, especially in africa, and there is always space for a couple more conts.

I would rename Spain to Iberia (as it includes portugal) and you have west and east europe the wrong way round.

Are the boarders within countries based on provinces? Nicest if they were.

samuelc812 wrote:From Spain Right through Europe and around to Egypt are real borders but as for North West Africa and Libya i was just playing around they aren't final i just wanted to see what it looked like I am still figuring out how i can make the water more, waterish :looks through dictionary is waterish a word?: but will figure it out sooner or later

North Africa has some really nice regional borders irl - large arid areas and smaller city states. These images obviously have too many provinces, but you can get an idea of rural and regional zones...

Couple of things - * Are you going to use army circles? Some of the territories are so small that an "88" will not fit. Like Switzerland or Crete or Cyprus... I always find it best to work my maps around the sample "88" armies. that way I don't have to rework anything at the last minute when I find my armies don't fit - or they look to cramped and hard to see.

* I think you've wasted too much space. That whole bottom legend is way to big. You don't have extend the height down that far if you don't need to. Since your colors are so bold and easy to tell apart, you could easily just put the color dots and bonus amounts on 1 line, along the bottom.

* You have too much bevel on the land for my taste. It's an overused filter if you ask me. I use it, but very slightly. But it's your call.

* Any plans on putting some textures into the land areas? MrBenn has already used plain bold colors in his Europa map and this is kind of similar to that feel. With that large bevel, it sort of reminds me of the current Europe map also. I would suggest adding some mountain ranges or rivers or textures into the land, to keep it unique.

* I really like the ocean water. It feels so Mediterranean! nice work on that. But I don't care for the cyan shattered looking background around the outside map. It looks like a pool liner.

Couple of things - * Are you going to use army circles? Some of the territories are so small that an "88" will not fit. Like Switzerland or Crete or Cyprus... I always find it best to work my maps around the sample "88" armies. that way I don't have to rework anything at the last minute when I find my armies don't fit - or they look to cramped and hard to see.

* I think you've wasted too much space. That whole bottom legend is way to big. You don't have extend the height down that far if you don't need to. Since your colors are so bold and easy to tell apart, you could easily just put the color dots and bonus amounts on 1 line, along the bottom.

* You have too much bevel on the land for my taste. It's an overused filter if you ask me. I use it, but very slightly. But it's your call.

* Any plans on putting some textures into the land areas? MrBenn has already used plain bold colors in his Europa map and this is kind of similar to that feel. With that large bevel, it sort of reminds me of the current Europe map also. I would suggest adding some mountain ranges or rivers or textures into the land, to keep it unique.

* I really like the ocean water. It feels so Mediterranean! nice work on that. But I don't care for the cyan shattered looking background around the outside map. It looks like a pool liner.

Hope you keep working on the map. Nice start.

Where do i begin

*I do plan on using Army Circles...I am looking at eliminating a few of the smaller countries like Lebanon, Macedonia and Albania...to make room for the circles Islands like Crete, the 88 doesn't have to be on the land does it ??

*I will Make the Legend 1 line...good idea I also think now that it is a bit too big

*Noted :too much bevel:

*I intend to put textures in yes to the land and i will be including rivers such as the Nile in Egypt etc.

*I thought the ocean was cool to thanks

*If you have any suggestions on the background please let me hear them i was just playing around to see what it looked like But now that you mention it does look a bit pool linerish

*And finally yes, i have been keeping everything organised on separate layers and folders In fact your Hawaiian Tutorial was quite helpful when creating this so thanks

I am working on doing the provinces of Algeria, Libya and Egypt as well as Turkey, i will have and update soon

As samuelc812 wrote, there's too much bevelling on the land. Also, using a global light source on bevelling can make the whole map look kind of odd. If you're married to bevelling, go for individual lightsources all aligned away or towards the centre of the 'continent', so there's a wholeness to each continent. It may just need less height on the bevel, but as it stands it looks kind of plastic, which detracts from the overall aesthetic of the map.

Personally, I think it's better using combinations of inner and outer glow. You can use inner glow with a large (10-40px) width, edge or centre, to get a nice gradient on your province colours, then a very tight (1-3px) outer glow (black, darken ~25-50%) to get the border definition in adjacent provinces. If you use outer glow like that, you'll need to layer the ocean before the land so it doesn't catch the glow, and give the ocean a similar outer glow to catch the coastline properly. Layer the legend/frame before the ocean to stop ocean outer glow catching the legend.

All up, it's looking very nice, though you're definitely going to have to consider army circles, as some provinces, such as Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, and Crete are going to have trouble accomodating them.

One other thing, try not to use drop shadows on land, it makes it look like it's floating in the water. A better option is to use inner glow on the ocean, and choose any sort of pattern, straight gradient, ripples, whatever. To stop it glowing in the corners (top left and bottom right) just copy the ocean layer, paint it well past the edges of the map (dragging the layer corner closer to the centre if need be), set the fill to 0%, then apply the glow to that layer. Return the layer to its position, et voila, the glow on the outer edges shouldn't be visible as it's painted past the image boundary.

Version 3.0ADDED: Army CirclesADDED:Texture to ContinentsADDED:Background ChangedELIMINATED:Small Countries such as Macedonia, Albania, Lebanon and SwitzerlandELIMINATED:Drop shadowsFIXED:It was suggested that there was too much bevel, so it has less bevel on the land and i added an inner glow to the land.TODO: Add Army Circle to Cyprus and Balearic Islands

Click image to enlarge.

Last edited by samuelc812 on Wed Sep 24, 2008 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's basically just Imperium Romanium layout and areas, although i understand that its different gameplay

There are loads of maps that have/include Europe as a main place

This is an EXTREME case of poor textures/bevels - they look like someone has just thrown them on

EVERYTHING in the map has a layer style, which is just not doing it for me/

Why would you post this again Just because you said that twice doesn't mean i am going to stop working on it, other people like it. Just cause you don't like it doesn't mean i have to stop working on it. You don't have the final say you know...

It's basically just Imperium Romanium layout and areas, although i understand that its different gameplay

There are loads of maps that have/include Europe as a main place

This is an EXTREME case of poor textures/bevels - they look like someone has just thrown them on

EVERYTHING in the map has a layer style, which is just not doing it for me/

This map is significantly different to Imperium Romanum, just look at the layout of the territories for starters. Also, IR doesn't use regional continent bonuses

Europe is a popular place because it has a long documented history, and yields many different interpretations based on it's layout and proximity to outlying areas of significance, such as Middle East, Eurasia, and Africa. Look at a map of Europe from Roman times, one from the dark ages, one from the middle ages, one from the renaissance, one from modern times - all different.

Texturing can be fixed, just look at ANY maps original, and the final product - that's what the foundry process is for

Everything on my map has a layer style, everything on many maps have layer styles - it's called graphic design

...and for crying out loud, before you criticise other peoples graphics, try fixing the goddam egregious spelling error in your sig. That same sig that your entire clan is using. I've already told you in your clan thread, and that has fallen on deaf ears. It looks amateurish in the extreme! Fix it Emmet!!

*I think there are a few maps that refer to this area as "The Near East" already...wouldn't it be nice to have a change and put something different like "The Middle East"

Possibly, but I don't think that is the correct name for only that bit of area. But I'm not too sure.

Other things

Gallipoli is not in the right area. It's probably just me, but I'd rather you change it just because of the geographical area. Gallipoli is on the other side of the Hellespont.

Germany.. Should be Switzerland.

Maybe shrink Serbia and place Albania there too. This could replace Ukraine.

That's it. Take them or leave them, it doesn't really bother me except for the Gallipoli and Germany things. Is "Valley of the Fairy Chimneys" really what that area is called?

Forgot to state, colours are looking good except for maybe the yellow.. But I'm not a professional, so my opinion may not count for that area. May be good to see attack lines between the areas if you don't mind.

KraphtOne wrote:when you sign up a new account one of the check boxes should be "do you want to foe colton24 (it is highly recommended) "

e_i_pi wrote:[*]...and for crying out loud, before you criticise other peoples graphics, try fixing the goddam egregious spelling error in your sig. That same sig that your entire clan is using. I've already told you in your clan thread, and that has fallen on deaf ears. It looks amateurish in the extreme! Fix it Emmet!![/list]

I think that's actually just a friendly banter between their clan and the Legion. It's not accidental.

KraphtOne wrote:when you sign up a new account one of the check boxes should be "do you want to foe colton24 (it is highly recommended) "

e_i_pi wrote:[*]...and for crying out loud, before you criticise other peoples graphics, try fixing the goddam egregious spelling error in your sig. That same sig that your entire clan is using. I've already told you in your clan thread, and that has fallen on deaf ears. It looks amateurish in the extreme! Fix it Emmet!![/list]

I think that's actually just a friendly banter between their clan and the Legion. It's not accidental.